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I was watching again the American science fiction film The Planet of the Apes (1968) and the scene at the place where Dr. Cornelius has been doing archeological excavations, near the Forbidden Zone, made me wonder: What if, instead of a human doll, a Star Wars character had been found, not saying "MA-MA!" but something like "No. I am your father!".

That assumption made me think that a massive overproduction of a particular Star Wars character could have increased its probability to last through time and justify such event, thus, I started looking for Star Wars action figure manufacturer production statistics, but I found very little. Instead, my quest took me through the most popular character: Darth Vader to the most expensive one: Boba Fett and that C-3PO and R2D2 are the character that have appeared in every Star Wars movie.

Here my founding regarding massive production:

From Galactic Figures:

The very first Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi action figure was released in 1978 by Kenner during the original vintage Star Wars series. Together with Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan is one of the most produced Star Wars characters in action figure form.

From Boba Fett Fan Club:

Boba Fett has become one of the most produced Star Wars figures from Hasbro.

From Star Wars Toy Museum:

One of the most prolific action figures in the entire Star Wars line, so far Princess Leia has been rendered as an action figure 36 times.

So, who is right? Is there a any reliable or official agency or instance that keep production numbers? That's why I ask: by far, and among Star Wars characters, which one has been produced more than any other of its kind?

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    “Is there a any reliable or official agency or instance that keep production numbers?” The Official Worldwide Agency of How Many Toys Got Made? Maybe we need to start that today, for the sake of future historians.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Jan 29, 2022 at 16:36
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    Are you looking for total units produced or for different models of the same character, or a combination? e.g. C#PO has had 10 figures (because he keeps replacing arms and legs) with 1 million produced each for 10 million total. While R2D2 has had only 4 (sturdy astro droid doesn't need changed much) models but with 3 million produced each for 12 million? Which has the most C3PO with 10 models or R2D2 with 12million total units?
    – Skooba
    Jan 29, 2022 at 20:01

1 Answer 1

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Although it's not an exhaustive list, the master list at Galactic Figures does include a reasonable cross-section of classic figurines from the 1970s up to today.

We can see from a casual look at their category listings that Luke is easily the most popular character in terms of figures, with others trailing very far behind. I've rounded to the nearest ten for ease of viewing.

  • Luke - 190
  • Han - 140
  • Darth - 130
  • Obi-Wan - 120
  • Anakin - 100
  • Leia - 90
  • Rey - 50
  • Chewie - 70
  • Boba Fett - 60
  • Lando - 30

Obviously this doesn't include Lego Minifigs (10 x Luke, 6 x Leia, 6 x Darth, 5 x Obi-Wan, Boba-Fett x 3) or jumbo figures, etc etc, but it looks like the distributions for those are also relatively similar.

Boba, as you can see, languishes far below other more heroic characters like Chewie and Leia, as befits someone whose claim to fame is that he got beaten up by a blind guy.

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    Although one has to wonder with the current series out on D+ if Boba’s numbers will significantly rise. At least in collectors circles.
    – MissouriSpartan
    Jan 30, 2022 at 15:36
  • @MissouriSpartan - I very much doubt it, for a couple of reasons. Firstly that they've had to shoehorn Luke into all the most recent films and TV shows and secondly because the new shows don't seem to be inspiring little kids to buy plastic tat.
    – Valorum
    Feb 3, 2022 at 16:20
  • this is a good point. Action figures as a whole aren’t “in” with todays kids like they were with our generations. (I’m Gen X)
    – MissouriSpartan
    Feb 5, 2022 at 2:05

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